KT420 


i. 


anxa 
_  88-B 
C  10690 


TKe  isesr  portraits  in  ENGR^RVING 


THE 


Best  Portraits 


IN 


Engraving. 


BY 

CHARLES  SUMNER. 


Fourth  Edition. 


NEW    YORK  : 

FREDERICK  KEPPEL, 
243  Broadway. 


Copy  2 


le  greater  part  of  the  following  article  appeared  in  a  New 
irk  Magazine,  in  January,  1872. 

The  completion,  as  now  issued,  was  given  to  the  publisher  in 
nianuscript  by  Mr.  Sumner,  shortly  before  his  death. 

He  gave  his  hearty  approval  to  its  publication  in  complete 
form,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  it  would  call  the  attention  of 
many  persons  of  artistic  taste  to  the  study  of  those  early  master- 
pieces of  the  engraver's  art,  the  collection  and  possession  of  which 
afforded  himself  so  much  pleasure  and  instruction. 

F.  K. 


THE 


Best  Portraits 

IN 

Engraving. 


BY 

CHARLES  SUMNER. 


Fourth  Edition. 


NEW   YORK  : 

FREDERICK  KEPPEL, 
243  Broadway. 


Entered  according-  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1S75,  by 

FREDERICK  KEPPEL, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING- 


ENGRAVING  is  one  of  the  fine  arts,  and  in  this 
beautiful  family  has  been  the  especial  handmaiden 
of  painting.  Another  sister  is  now  coming  forward  to 
join  this  service,  lending  to  it  the  charm  of  color.  If,  in 
our  day,  the  "  chromo  "  can  do  more  than  engraving,  it, 
cannot  impair  the  value  of  the  early  masters.  With  them 
there  is  no  rivalry  or  competition.  Historically,  as  well 
as  aesthetically,  they  will  be  masters  always. 

Everybody  knows  something  of  engraving,  as  of  print- 
ing, with  which  it  was  associated  in  origin.  School-books, 
illustrated  papers,  and  shop  windows  are  the  ordinary  op- 
portunities open  to  all.  But  while  creating  a  transient 
interest,  or,  perhaps,  quickening  the  taste,  they  furnish 
little  with  regard  to  the  art  itself,  especially  in  other  days. 
And  yet,  looking  at  an  engraving,  like  looking  at  a  book, 
may  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  pleasure  and  a  new  study. 

Each  person  has  his  own  story.  Mine  is  simple.  Suf- 
fering from  continued  prostration,  disabling  me  from  the 
ordinary  activities  of  life,  I  turned  to  engravings  for  em- 
ployment and  pastime.  With  the  invaluable  assistance 
of  that  devoted  connoisseur,  the  late  Dr.  Thies,  I  went 
through  the  Gray  collection  at  Cambridge,  enjoying  it  like 


4  THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRA  VING. 

a  picture-gallery.  Other  collections  in  our  country  were 
examined  also.  Then,  in  Paris,  while  undergoing  severe 
medical  treatment,  rny  daily  medicine  for  weeks  was  the 
vast  cabinet  of  engravings,  then  called  Imperial,  now  Na- 
tional, counted  by  the  million,  where  was  everything  to 
please  or  instruct.  Thinking  of  those  kindly  portfolios,  1 
make  this  record  of  gratitude,  as  to  benefactors.  Per- 
haps some  other  invalid,  seeking  occupation  without  bur- 
den, may  find  in  them  the  solace  that  I  did.  Happily,  it 
is  not  necessary  to  visit  Paris  for  the  purpose.  Other  col- 
lections, on  a  smaller  scale,  will  furnish  the  same  remedy. 

In  any  considerable  collection,  portraits  occupy  an  im- 
portant place.  Their  multitude  may  be  inferred  when  I 
mention  that,  in  one  series  of  portfolios,  in  the  Paris  cabi- 
net, I  counted  no  less  than  forty-seven  portraits  of  Frank- 
lin and  forty-three  of  Lafayette,  with  an  equal  number  of 
Washington,  while  all  the  early  Presidents  were  numer- 
ously represented.  But,  in  this  large  company,  there  are 
very  few  possessing  artistic  value.  The  great  portraits  of 
modern  times  constitute  a  very  short  list,  like  the  great 
poems  or  histories,  and  it  is  the  same  with  engravings  as 
with  pictures.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  explaining  the  dif- 
ference between  an  historical  painter  and  a  portrait-painter, 
remarks  that  the  former  "paints  men  in  general,  a  por- 
trait-painter a  particular  man,  and  consequently  a  defec- 
tive model."  *  A  portrait,  therefore,  may  be  an  accurate 
presentment  of  its  subject  without  aesthetic  value. 

But  here,  as  in  other  things,  genius  exercises  its  accus- 

*  Discourses  before  the  Koyal  Academy,  No.  IV. 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING,  5 

tomed  sway  without  limitation.  Even  the  difficulties  of  a 
defective  model  "  did  not  prevent  RafFaelle,  Titian, 
Rembrandt,  Rubens,  Velasquez,  or  Vandyck  from  pro- 
ducing portraits  precious  in  the  history  of  art.  It  would 
be  easy  to  mention  heads  by  RafFaelle,  yielding  in  value 
to  only  two  or  three  of  his  larger  masterpieces,  like  the 
Dresden  Madonna.  Charles  the  Fifth  stooped  to  pick 
up  the  pencil  of  Titian,  saying  "  It  becomes  Cassar  to  serve 
Titian!"  True  enough  ;  but  this  unprecedented  compli- 
ment from  the  imperial  successor  of  Charlemagne  attests 
the  glory  of  the  portrait-painter.  The  female  figures  of 
Titian,  so  much  admired  under  the  names  of  Flora,  La 
Bella,  his  daughter,  his  mistress,  and  even  his  Venus,  were 
portraits  from  life.  Rembrandt  turned  from  his  great 
triumphs  in  his  own  peculiar  school  to  portraits  of  un- 
wonted power;  so  also  did  Rubens,  showing  that  in  this 
department  his  universality  of  conquest  was  not  arrested. 
To  these  must  be  added  Velasquez  and  Vandyck,  each  of 
infinite  genius,  who  won  fame  especially  as  portrait- 
painters.     And  what  other  title  has  Sir  Joshua  himself? 

Historical  pictures  are  often  collections  of  portraits  ar- 
ranged so  as  to  illustrate  an  important  event.  Such  is 
the  famous  Peace  of  Miinster,  by  Terburg,  just  presented 
by  a  liberal  Englishman  to  the  National  Gallery  at  Lon- 
don. Here  are  the  plenipotentiaries  of  Holland,  Spain, 
and  Austria,  uniting  in  the  great  treaty  which  constitutes 
an  epoch  in  the  Law  of  Nations.  The  engraving  by  Suy- 
derhoef  is  rare  and  interesting.  Similiar  in  character  is 
the  Death  of  Chatham,  by  Copley,  where  the  illustrious 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


Statesman  is  surrounded  by  the  peers  he  had  been  address- 
ing— every  one  a  portrait.  To  this  list  must  be  added 
the  pictures  by  Trumbull  in  the  Rotunda  of  the  Capital 
at  Washington,  especially  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, in  which  Thackeray  took  a  sincere  interest.  Stand- 
ing before  these,  the  author  and  artist  said  to  me,  These 
are  the  best  pictures  in  the  country,"  and  he  proceeded  to 
remark  on  their  honesty  and  fidelity  ;  but  doubtless  their 
real  value  is  in  their  portraits. 

Unquestionably  the  finest  assemblage  of  portraits  any- 
where is  that  of  the  artists  occupying  two  halls  in  the  gal- 
lery at  Florence,  being  autographs  contributed  by  the 
masters  themselves.  Here  is  RafFaelle,  with  chestnut- 
brown  hair,  and  dark  eyes  full  of  sensibility,  painted  when 
he  was  twenty-three,  and  known  by  the  engraving  of 
Forster — Julio  Romano,  in  black  and  red  chalk  on  paper, 
- — Massaccio,  called  the  father  of  painting,  much  ad- 
mired, —  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  beautiful  and  grand, — 
Titian,  rich  and  splendid, — Pietro  Perugino,  remarkable 
for  execution  and  •  expression, — Albert  Diirer,  rigid  but 
masterly, -^Gerhard  Dow,  finished  according  to  his  own 
exacting  style, — and  Reynolds,  with  fresh  English  face; 
but  these  are  only  examples  of  this  incomparable  collec- 
tion, which  was  begun  as  far  back  as  the  Cardinal  Leopold 
de  Medici,  and  has  been  happily  continued  to  the  present 
time.  Here  are  the  lions,  painted  by  themselves,  except, 
perhaps,  the  foremost  of  all,  Michael  Angelo,  whose 
portrait  seems  the  work  of  another.  The  impression 
from  this  collection  is  confirmed  by  that  of  any  group  ot 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


7 


historic  artists.  Their  portraits  excel  those  of  statesmen, 
soldiers,  or  divines,  as  is  easily  seen  by  engravings  acces- 
sible to  all.  The  engraved  heads  in  Arnold  Houbraken's 
biographies  of  the  Dutch  and  Flemish  painters,  in  three 
volumes,  are  a  family  of  rare  beauty.* 

The  relation  of  engraving  to  painting  is  often  discussed  ; 
but  nobody  has  treated  it  with  more  knowledge  or  senti- 
ment than  the  consummate  engraver  Longhi  in  his  in- 
teresting work  La  Calcogrqfia.-\  Dwelling  on  the  general 
aid  it  renders  to  the  lovers  of  art,  he  claims  for  it  greater 
merit  in  publishing  and  immortalizing  the  portraits  of 
eminent  men  for  the  example  of  the  present  and  future 
generations;"  and,  "better  than  any  other  art,  serving  as 
the  vehicle  for  the  most  extended  and  remote  propagation 
of  deserved  celebrity.**  Even  great  monuments  in  por- 
phyry and  bronze  are  less  durable  than  these  light  and 
fragile  impressions  subject  to  all  the  chances  of  wind, 
water,  and  fire,  but  prevailing  by  their  numbers  where  the 
mass  succumbs.  In  other  words,  it  is  with  engravings  as 
with  books ;  nor  is  this  the  only  resemblance  between 
them.  According  to  Longhi,  an  engraving  is  not  a  copy 
or  imitation,  as  is  sometimes  insisted,  but  a  translation. 
The  engraver  translates  into  another  language,  where  light 
and  shade  supply  the  place  of  colors.    The  duplication  of 

*De  Groote  Schonburgh  der  Nederlantsche  Konctschilders  en  Schilderessen. 

t  This  rare  volume  is  in  the  Congressional  Library,  among  the  books  which 
belonged  originally  to  Hon.  George  P.  Marsh,  our  excellent  and  most  scholarly 
minister  in  Italy.  I  asked  for  it  in  vain  at  the  Paris  Cabinet  of  Engravings, 
and  also  at  the  Imperial  Library.  Never  translated  into  Prench  or  English; 
there  is  a  German  translation  of  it  bv  Carl  Barth. 


8  THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


a  book  in  the  same  language  is  a  copy,  and  so  is  the 
duplication  of  a  picture  in  the  same  material.  Evidently 
an  engraving  is  not  a  copy ;  it  does  not  reproduce  the 
original  picture,  except  in  drawing  and  expression;  nor  is 
it  a  mere  imitation,  but,  as  Bryant's  Homer  and  Long- 
fellow's Dante  are  presentations  of  the  great  originals  in 
another  language,  so  is  the  engraving  a  presentation  of 
painting  in  another  material  which  is  like  another  lan- 
guage. 

Thus  does  the  engraver  vindicate  his  art.  But  nobody 
can  examine  a  choice  print  without  feeling  that  it  has  a 
merit  of  its  own  different  from  any  picture,  and  inferior 
only  to  a  good  picture.  A  work  of  RafFaelle,  or  any  of 
the  great  masters,  is  better  in  an  engraving  of  Longhi  or 
Morghen  than  in  any  ordinary  copy,  and  would  probably 
cost  more  in  the  market.  A  good  engraving  is  an  un- 
doubted work  of  art,  but  this  cannot  be  said  of  maay 
pictures,  which,  like  Peter  Pindar's  razors,  seem  made 
to  sell. 

Much  that  belongs  to  the  painter  belongs  also  to  the 
engraver,  who  must  have  the  same  knowledge  of  contours, 
the  same  power  of  expression,  the  same  sense  of  beauty, 
and  the  same  ability  in  drawing  with  sureness  of  sight  as 
if,  according  to  Michael  Angelo,  he  had  ''a  pair  of  com- 
passes in  his  eyes."  These  qualities  in  a  high  degree 
make  the  artist,  whether  painter  or  engraver,  naturally 
excelling  in  portraits.  But  choice  portraits  are  less  num- 
erous in  engraving  than  in  painting,  for  the  reason,  that 
painting  does  not  always  find  a  successful  translator. 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


9 


The  earliest  engraved  portraits  which  attract  attention 
are  by  Albert  Diirer,  who  engraved  his  own  work,  trans- 
lating himself.  His  eminence  as  painter  was  continued  as 
engraver.  Here  he  surpassed  his  predecessors,  Martin 
Schoen  in  Germany,  and  Mantegna  in  Italy,  so  that  Longhi 
does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  he  was  the  first  who  carried 
the  art  from  infancy  in  which  he  found  it  to  a  condition 
not  far  from  flourishing  adolescence.  But,  while  recog- 
nizing his  great  place  in  the  history  of  engraving,  it  is 
impossible  not  to  see  that  he  is  often  hard  and  constrained^ 
if  not  unfinished.  His  portrait  of  Erasmus  is  justly 
famous,  and  is  conspicuous  among  the  prints  exhibited 
in  the  British  Museum.  It  is  dated  1526,  two  years  be- 
fore the  death  of  Diirer,  and  has  helped  to  extend  the 
fame  of  the  universal  scholar  and  approved  man  of  let- 
ters, who  in  his  own  age  filled  a  sphere  not  unlike  that  of 
Voltaire  in  a  later  century.  There  is  another  portrait  of 
Erasmus  by  Holbein,  often  repeated,  so  that  two  great 
artists  have  contributed  to  his  renown.  That  by  Diirer 
is  admired.  The  general  fineness  of  touch,  with  the  ac- 
cessories of  books  and  flowers,  shows  the  care  in  its  exe- 
cution ;  but  it  wants  expression,  and  the  hands  are  far 
from  graceful. 

Another  most  interesting  portrait  by  Diirer,  executed 
in  the  same  year  with  the  Erasmus,  is  Philip  Melancthon, 
the  St.  John  of  the  Reformation,  sometimes  called  the 
teacher  of  Germany.  Luther,  while  speaking  of  himself 
as  rough,  boisterous,  stormy,  and  altogether  warlike,  says, 
**but  Master  Philippus  comes  along  softly  and  gently. 


10  THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 

sowing  and  watering  with  joy  according  to  the  rich  gifts 
which  God  has  bestowed  upon  him."  At  the  date  of  the 
print  he  was  twenty-nine  years  of  age,  and  the  counten- 
ance shows  the  mild  reformer. 

Augustine  Caracci,  of  the  Bolognese  family,  memorable 
in  art,  added  to  considerable  success  as  painter  undoubted 
triumphs  as  engraver.  His  prints  are  numerous,  and  many 
are  regarded  with  favor  ;  but  out  of  the  long  list  not  one 
is  so  sure  of  that  longevity  allotted  to  art  as  his  portrait  of 
Titian,  which  bears  date  1587,  eleven  years  after  the  death 
of  the  latter.  Over  it  is  the  inscription,  Titiani  Vicellii 
Pictoris  celeberrimi  ac  famosissimi  vera  effigies^  to  which 
is  added  beneath  Cujus  nomen  orbis  continere  non  valet  I 
Although  founded  on  originals  by  Titian  himself,  it  was 
probably  designed  by  the  remarkable  engraver.  It  is  very 
like,  and  yet  unlike  the  familiar  portrait  of  which  we  have 
a  recent  engraving  by  Mandel,  from  a  repetition  in  the 
gallery  of  Berlin.  Looking  at  it,  we  are  reminded  of  the 
terms  by  which  Vasari  described  the  great  painter,  guidi- 
cioso^  hello  e  stupendo.  Such  a  head,  with  such  visible 
power,  justifies  these  words,  or  at  least  makes  us  believe 
them  entirely  applicable.  It  is  bold,  broad,  strong,  and 
instinct  with  life. 

This  print,  like  the  Erasmus  of  Diirer,  is  among  those 
selected  for  exhibition  at  the  British  Museum,  and  it  de- 
serves the  honor.  Though  only  paper  with  black  lines, 
it  is,  by  the  genius  of  the  artist,  as  good  as  a  picture.  In 
all  engraving  nothing  is  better. 

Contemporary  with  Caracci  was  Henry  Goltzius,  at  Har- 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


11 


km,  excellent  as  painter,  but,  like  the  Italian,  pre-eminent 
as  engraver.  His  prints  show  mastery  of  the  art,  mak- 
ing something  like  an  epoch  in  its  history.  His  un- 
wearied skill  in  the  use  of  the  burin  appears  in  a  tradition 
gathered  by  Longhi  from  Wille,  that,  having  commenced 
a  line,  he  carried  it  to  the  end  without  once  stopping, 
while  the  long  and  bright  threads  of  copper  turned  up 
were  brushed  aside  by  his  flowing  beard,  which  at  the  end 
of  a  day's  labor  so  shone  in  the  light  of  a  candle  that  his 
companions  nicknamed  him  the  man  with  the  golden 
beard."  There  are  prints  by  him  which  shine  more  than 
his  beard.  Among  his  masterpieces  is  the  portrait  of  his 
instructor,  Theodore  Coernhert,  engraver,  poet,  musi- 
cian, and  vindicator  of  his  country,  and  author  of  the 
national  air,  William  of  Orange,"  whose  passion  for 
liberty  did  not  prevent  him  from  giving  to  the  world 
translations  of  Cicero's  Offices  and  Seneca's  Treatise  on 
Beneficence.  But  that  of  the  engraver  himself,  as  large-as 
life,  is  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  art.  Among  the 
numerous  prints  by  Goltzius,  these  two  will  always  be  con- 
spicuous. 

In  Holland  Goltzius  had  eminent  successors.  Among 
these  was  Paulus  Pontius,  designer  and  engraver,  whose 
portrait  of  Rubens  is  of  great  life  and  beauty,  and  Rem- 
brandt, who  was  not  less  masterly  in  engraving  than  in 
painting,  as  appears  sufficiently  in  his  portraits  of  the  Bur- 
gomaster Six,  the  two  Coppenols,  the  Advocate  Tolling,  the 
goldsmith  Lutma,  all  showing  singular  facility  and  origin- 
ality.   Contemporary  with  Rembrandt  was  Cornelius  Viss- 


12 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


cher,  also  designer  and  engraver,  whose  portraits  were 
unsurpassed  in  boldness  and  picturesque  effect.  At  least 
one  authority  has  accorded  to  this  artist  the  palm  of  en- 
graving, hailing  him  as  Corypheus  of  the  art.  Among 
his  successful  portraits  is  that  of  a  cat;  but  all  yield  ::o 
what  are  known  as  the  Great  Beards,  being  the  portraits  of 
William  de  Ryck,  an  ophthalmist  at  Amsterdam,  and  of 
Gellius  de  Bouma,  the  Zutphen  ecclesiastic.  The  latter  is 
especially  famous.  In  harmony  with  the  beard  is  the 
heavy  face,  seventy-seven  years  old,  showing  the  fulness 
of  long-continued  potation,  and  hands  like  the  face,  ori- 
ginal and  powerful,  if  not  beautiful 

In  contrast  with  Visscher  was  his  companion  Vandyck, 
who  painted  portraits  with  constant  beauty  and  carried 
into  etching  the  same  Virgilian  taste  and  skill.  His  aqua- 
fortis was  not  less  gentle  than  his  pencil.  Among  his 
etched  portraits  I  would  select  that  of  Snyders,  the  animal 
painter,  as  extremely  beautiful.  M.  Renouvier,  in  his 
learned  and  elaborate  work,  Des  Types  et  des  Manures  des 
Maitres  Graveurs^  though  usually  moderate  in  praise, 
speaks  of  these  sketches  as  possessing  a  boldness  and 
delicacy  which  charm,  being  taken  at  the  height  of  his 
genius,  by  the  painter  who  knew  the  best  how  to  idealize 
the  painting  of  portraits.** 

Such  are  illustrative  instances  from  Germany,  Italy,  and 
Holland.  As  yet,  power  rather  than  beauty  presided, 
unless  in  the  etchings  of  Vandyck.  But  the  reign  o'i 
Louis  XIV.  was  beginning  to  assert  a  supremacy  in  en- 
graving as  in  literature.    The  great  school  of  French  en- 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING.  13 

gravers  which  appeared  at  this  time  brought  the  art  to  a 
splendid  perfection,  which  many  think  has  not  been 
equalled  since,  so  that  Masson,  Nanteuil,  Edelinck,  and 
Drevet  may  claim  fellowship  in  genius  with  their  im- 
mortal contemporaries,  Corneille,  Racine,  La  Fontaine, 
and  Moliere. 

The  school  was  opened  by  Claude  Mellan,  more  known 
as  engraver  than  painter,  and  also  author  of  most  of  the 
designs  he  engraved.  His  life,  beginning  with  the  sixteenth 
century,  was  protracted  beyond  ninety  years,  not  without 
signal  honor,  for  his  name  appears  among  the  Illustrious 
Men  "  of  France,  in  the  beautiful  volumes  of  Perrault, 
which  is  also  a  homage  to  the  art  he  practiced.  One  of 
his  works,  for  a  long  time  much  admired,  was  described 
by  this  author  : 

"  It  is  a  Christ's  head,  designed  and  shaded  with  his  crown  of  thorns,  and 
the  blood  that  gushes  forth  from  all  parts  by  one  single  stroke,  which, 
beginning  at  the  tip  of  the  nose,  and  so  still  circling  on,  forms  most  exactly 
everything  that  is  represented  in  this  plate,  only  by  the  different  thickness  of 
the  stroke,  which,  according  as  it  is  more  or  less  swelling,  makes  the  eyes, 
nose,  mouth,  cheeks,  hair,  blood,  and  thorns;  the  whole  so  well  represented 
and  with  such  expressions  of  pain  and  affliction,  that  nothing  is  more  dolorous 
or  touching.''* 

This  print  is  known  as  the  Sudarium  of  St.  Veronica. 
Longhi  records  that  itwas  thought  at  the  time  inimitable," 
and  was  praised  "  to  the  skies  but  people  think  differ- 
ently now.    At  best  it  is  a  curiosity  among  portraits,  A 

Les  Hommes  Illustres,  par  Perrault,  Tome  ii.,  p.  97.  The  excellent  copy  of 
this  work  in  the  Congressional  Library  belonged  to  Mr.  Ka.'sh.  The  prints  are 
early  impressions. 


14 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


traveler  reported  some  time  ago  that  it  was  the  sole  print 
on  the  walls  of  the  room  occupied  by  the  director  of  the 
Imperial  Cabinet  of  Engravings  at  St.  Petersbuigh. 

Morin  was  a  contemporary  of  Mellan,  and  less  famous  at 
the  time.  His  style  of  engraving  was  peculiar,  being  a 
mixture  of  strokes  and  dots,  but  so  harmonized  as  to  pro- 
duce a  pleasing  effect.  One  of  the  best  engraved  portraits 
in  the  history  of  the  art  is  his  Cardinal  Bentivoglio  ;  but 
here  he  translated  Vandyck,  whose  picture  is  among  his 
best.    A  fine  impression  of  this  print  is  a  choice  possession. 

Among  French  masters  Antoine  Masson  is  conspicuous 
for  brilliant  hardihood  of  style,  which,  though  failing  in 
taste,  is  powerful  in  effect.  Metal,  armor,  velvet,  feather, 
seem  as  if  painted.  He  is  also  most  successful  in  the 
treatment  of  hair.  His  immense  skill  made  him  welcome 
difficulties,  as  if  to  show  his  ability  in  overcoming  them. 
His  print  of  Henri  de  Lorraine,  Comte  d'Harcourt,  known 
as  Cadet  a  la  Perle,  from  the  pearl  in  the  ear,  with  the 
date  T667,  is  often  placed  at  the  head  of  engraved  portraits, 
although  not  particularly  pleasing  or  interesting.  The 
vigorous  countenance  is  aided  l)y  the  gleam  and  sheen  of 
the  various  substances  entering  into  the  costume.  Less 
powerful,  but  having  a  charm  of  its  own,  is  that  of  Brisa- 
cier,  known  as  the  Gray-haired  Man,  executed  in  1664. 
The  remarkable  representation  of  hair  in  this  print  has 
been  a  model  for  artists,  especially  for  Longhi,  who  recounts 
that  he  copied  it  in  his  head  of  Washington.  Somewhat 
similar  is  the  head  of  Charrier,  the  criminal  judge  at  Lyons. 
Though  inferior  in  hair,  it  surpasses  the  other  in  expression. 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING.  15 

Nanteuil  was  an  artist  of  different  character,  being  to 
Masson  as  Vandyck  to  Visscher,  with  less  of  vigor  than 
beauty.  His  original  genius  was  refined  by  classical  studies, 
and  quickened  by  diligence.  Though  dying  at  the  age  of 
forty-eight,  he  had  executed  as  many  as  two  hundred  and 
eighty  plates,  nearly  all  portraits.  The  favor  he  enjoyed 
during  life  was  not  diminished  with  time.  His  works  illus- 
trate the.  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  are  still  admired. 
Among  these  are  portraits  of  the  King,  Annie  of  Austria, 
John  Baptiste  van  Steenberghen,  the  Advocate-General  of 
Holland,  a  heavy  Dutchman,  Francois  de  la  Motte  Le 
Vayer,  a  fine  and  delicate  work,  Turenne,  Colbert,  La- 
moignon,  the  poet  Loret,  Maridat  de  Serriere,  Louise- 
Mariede  Gonzague,  Louis  Hesselin,  Christine  of  Sweden — 
all  masterpieces  ;  but  above  these  is  the  Pompone  de  Bel- 
lievre,  foremost  among  his  masterpieces,  and  a  chief  mas- 
terpiece of  art,  being,  in  the  judgment  of  more  than  one 
connoisseur,  the  most  beautiful  engraved  portrait  that  ex- 
ists. That  excellent  authority,  Dr.  Thies,  who  knew  en- 
graving more  thoroughly  and  sympathetically  than  any 
person  1  remember  in  our  country,  said  in  a  letter  to  my- 
self, as  long  ago  as  March,  1858  : 

*'  When  I  call  Nanteuil's  Pompone  the  handsomest  engraved  portrait,  I  ex- 
press a  conviction  to  which  I  came  when  I  studied  all  the  remarkable  engraved 
portraits  at  the  royal  cabinet  of  engravings  at  Dresden,  and  at  the  large  and 
exquisite  collection  there  of  the  late  King  of  Saxony,  and  in  which  I  was  con- 
firmed, or  perhaps,  to  which  I  was  led,  by  the  director  of  the  two  establish- 
ments, the  late  Professor  Prenzel." 

And  after  describing  this  head,  the  learned  connoisseur 
proceeds  : — 


16 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


"There  is  an  air  of  refinement,  vornehmheit,  round  the  mouth  and  nose  as  in 
no  other  engraving?  Color  and  life  shine  through  the  skin,  and  the  lips-  ap- 
pear red." 

It  is  bold,  perhaps,  thus  to  exalt  a  single  portrait,  giv- 
ing to  it  the  palm  of  Venus  ;  nor  do  I  know  that  it  is  en- 
tirely proper  to  classify  portraits  according  to  beauty.  In 
disputing  about  beauty,  we  are  too  often  lost  in  the  variety 
of  individual  tastes,  and  yet  each  person  knows  when  he 
is  touched.  In  proportion  as  multitudes  are  touched, 
there  must  be  merit.  As  in  music  a  simple  heart-melody 
is  often  more  effective  than  any  triumph  over  difficulties, 
or  bravura  of  manner,  so  in  engraving  the  sense  of  the 
beautiful  may  prevail  overall  else,  and  this  is  the  case  with 
the  Pompone,  although  there  are  portraits  by  others  show- 
ing higher  art. 

No  doubt  there  have  been  as  handsome  men,  whose 
portraits  were  engraved,  but  not  so  well.  I  know  not  if 
Pompone  was  what  would  be  called  a  handsome  man, 
although  his  air  is  noble  and  his  countenance  bright.  But 
among  portraits  more  boldly,  delicately,  or  elaborately 
engraved,  there  are  very  few  to  contest  the  palm  of  beauty. 

And  who  is  this  handsome  man  to  whom  the  engraver 
has  given  a  lease  of  fame?  Son,  nephew,  and  grandson  of 
■eminent  magistrates,  high  in  the  nobility  of  the  robe,  with 
two  grandfathers  chancellors  of  France,  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  magistry  of  France,  first  President  of  Parlia- 
ment according  to  inscription  on  the  engraving,  Senatus 
Francis  Princeps^  ambassador  to  Italy,  Holland,  and  Eng- 
land, charged  in  the  latter  country  by  Cardinal  Mazarin 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING.  17 


with  the  impossible  duty  of  making  peace  between  the 
Long  Parliament  and  Charles  the  First,  and  at  his  death, 
great  benefactor  of  the  General  Hospital  of  Paris,  bestow- 
ing upon  it  riches  and  the  very  bed  on  which  he  died. 
Such  is  the  simple  catalogue,  and  yet  it  is  all  forgotten. 

A  Funeral  Panegyric  pronounced  at  his  death,  now  be- 
fore me  in  the  original  pamphlet  of  the  time,*  testifies  to 
more  than  family  or  office.  In  himself  he  was  much,  and 
not  of  those  who,  according  to  the  saying  of  St.  Bernard, 
give  out  smoke  rather  than  light.  Pure  glory  and  inno- 
cent riches  were  his,  which  were  more  precious  in  the  sight 
of  good  men,  and  he  showed  himself  incorruptible,  and 
not  to  be  bought  at  any  price.  It  were  easy  for  him  to 
have  turned  a  deluge  of  wealth  into  his  house  ;  but  he 
knew  that  gifts  insensibly  corrupt, — that  the  specious  pre- 
text of  gratitude  is  the  snare  in  which  the  greatest  souls 
allow  themselves  to  be  caught, — that  a  man  covered  with 
favors  has  difficulty  in  setting  himself  against  injustice  in 
all  its  forms,  and  that  a  magistrate,  divided  between  a 
sense  of  obligations  received  and  the  care  of  the  public 
interest,  which  he  ought  always  to  promote,  is  a  paralytic 
magistrate,  a  magistrate  deprived  of  a  moiety  of  himself. 
So  spoke  the  preacher,  while  he  portrayed  a  charity  tender 
and  prompt  for  the  wretched,  a  vehemence  just  and  in- 
flexible to  the  dishonest  and  wicked,  with  a  sweetness  no- 

*Pan^gyrique  Fun^bre  de  Messire  Pompone  de  Bellievre,  Premier  Presi- 
dent au  Parlement,  pronounc^  d  I'Hostel-Dieu  de  Paris,  le  17  Avril,  1657,  par 
un  Chanoine  rdgulier  de  la  Congregation  de  France.  The  dedication  shows 
this  to  have  been  the  work  of  F.  Lallemant  of  St.  Genevifeve. 


18 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


ble  and  beneficent  for  all  ;  dwelling  also  on  his  counten- 
ance, which  had  not  that  severe  and  sour  austerity  that 
renders  justice  to  the  good  only  with  regret,  and  to  the 
guilty  only  with  anger  ;  then  on  his  pleasant  and  gracious 
address,  his  intellectual  and  charming  conversation,  his 
ready  and  judicious  replies,  his  agreeable  and  intelligent 
silence,  his  refusals,  which  were  well  received  and  obliging; 
while,  amidst  all  the  pomp  and  splendor  accompanying 
him,  there  shone  in  his  eyes  a  certain  air  of  humanity  and 
majesty,  which  secured  for  him,  and  for  justice  itself,  love 
as  well  as  respect.  His  benefactions  were  constant.  Not 
content  with  giving  only  his  own,  he  gave  with  a  beautiful 
manner  still  more  rare.  He  could  not  abide  beauty  of 
intelligence  without  goodness  of  soul,  and  he  preferred 
always  the  poor,  having  for  them  not  only  compassion  but 
a  sort  of  reverence.  He  knew  that  the  way  to  take  the 
poison  from  riches  was  to  make  them  tasted  by  those 
who  had  them  not.  The  sentiment  of  Christian  charity 
for  the  poor,  who  were  to  him  in  the  place  of  children, 
was  his  last  thought,  as  witness  especially  the  General 
Hospital  endowed  by  him,  and  presented  by  the  preacher 
as  the  greatest  and  most  illustrious  work  ever  undertaken 
by  charity  the  most  heroic. 

Thus  lived  and  died  the  splendid  Pompone  de  Bellievre, 
with  no  other  children  than  his  works.  Celebrated  at  the 
time  by  a  Funeral  Panegyric  now  forgotten,  and  placed 
among  the  Illustrious  Men  of  France  in  a  work  remem- 
bered only  for  its  engraved  portraits,  his  famous  life 
shrinks,  in   the  voluminous   Biograpkie  Universelle  of 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRA  VING.  19 

Michaud,  to  the  seventh  part  of  a  single  page,  and  in  the 
later  Biographie  Generalle  of  Didot  disappears  entirely. 
History  forgets  to  mention  him.  But  the  lofty  magis- 
trate, ambassador,  and  benefactor,  founder  of  a  great 
hospital,  cannot  be  entirely  lost  from  sight  so  long  as  his 
portrait  by  Nanteuil  holds  a  place  in  art. 

Younger  than  Nanteuil  by  ten  years,  Gerard  Edelinck 
excelled  him  in  genuine  mastery.  Born  at  Antwerp,  he 
became  French  by  adoption,  occupying  apartments  in  the 
Gobelins,  and  enjoying  a  pension  from  Louis  XIV. 
Longhi  says  that  he  is  the  engraver  whose  works,  not  only 
according  to  his  own  judgment,  but  that  of  the  most 
intelligent,  deserves  the  first  place  among  exemplars,  and 
he  attributes  to  him  all  perfections  in  highest  degree,  de- 
sign, chiaro-QScuro,  serial  perspective,  local  tints,  softness, 
lightness,  variety,  in  short  everything  which  can  enter  into 
the  most  exact  representation  of  the  true  and  beautiful 
without  the  aid  of  color.  Others  may  have  surpassed  him 
in  particular  things,  but,  according  to  the  Italian  teacher, 
he  remains  by  common  consent  the  prince  of  engrav- 
ing.'*   Another  critic  calls  him  "  king." 

It  requires  no  remarkable  knowledge  to  recognize  his 
great  merits.  Evidently  he  is  a  master,  exercising  sway 
with  absolute  art,  and  without  attempts  to  bribe  the  eye 
by  special  effects  of  light,  as  on  metal  or  satin.  Among 
his  conspicuous  productions  is  the  Tent  of  Darius,  a  large 
engraving  on  two  sheets,  after  Le  Brun,  where  the  family 
of  the  Persian  monarch  prostrate  themselves  before  Alex- 
ander, who  approaches  with  Hephsestion.    There  is  also 


20 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


a  Holy  Family,  after  RafFaelle,  and  the  Battle  of  the 
Standard,  after  Leonardo  da  Vinci ;  but  these  are  less  in- 
teresting than  his  numerous  portraits,  among  which  that 
of  Philippe  de  Champagne  is  the  chief  masterpiece  ;  but 
there  are  others  of  signal  merit,  including  especially  that 
of  Madame  Heliot,  or  La  Belle  Religieuse^  a  beautiful 
French  coquette  praying  before  a  crucifix  ;  Martin  van  der 
Bogaert,  a  sculptor;  Frederic  Leonard,  printer  to  the 
king ;  Mouton,  the  Lute-player  ;  Martinus  Dilgerus,  with 
a  venerable  beard  white  with  age  ;  Jules  Hardouin  Man- 
sart,  the  architect  ;  also  a  portrait  of  Pompone  de  Bellievre 
which  will  be  found  among  the  prints  of  Perrault's  Illus- 
trious Men. 

The  Philippe  de  Champagne  is  the  head  of  that  eminent 
French  artist  after  a  painting  by  himself^  and  it  contests 
the  palm  with  the  Pompone.  Mr.  Marsh,  who  is  an 
authority,  prefers  it.  Dr.  Thies,  who  places  the  latter 
first  in  beauty,  is  constrained  to  allow  that  the  other  is 
^'  superior  as  a  work  of  the  graver,"  being  executed 
with  all  the  resources  of  the  art  in  its  chastest  form.  The 
enthusiasm  of  Longhi  finds  expression  in  unusual  praise : 

"The  work  which  goes  the  most  to  my  blood,  and  with  regard  to  which 
Edelinck,  with  good  reason,  congratulated  himself,  is  the  portrait  of  Cham- 
pagne. I  shall  die  before  I  cease  to  contemplate  it  with  wonder  always  new. 
Here  is  seen  how  he  was  equally  great  as  designer  and  engraver."  * 

And  he  then  dwells  on  various  details  ;  the  skin,  the 
flesh,  the  eyes  living  and  seeing,  the  moistened  lips,  the 
chin  covered  with  a  beard  unshaved  for  a  few  days,  and 
the  hair  in  all  its  forms. 

^  La  Calcografia^  p.  176. 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


21 


Between  the  rival  portraits  by  Nanteuil  and  Edelinck  it 
is  unnecessary  to  decide.  Each  is  beautiful.  In  looking 
at  them  we  recognize  anew  the  transient  honors  of  public 
service.  The  present  fame  of  Champagne  surpasses  that 
of  Pompone.  The  artist  outlives  the  magistrate.  But 
does  not  the  poet  tell  us  that  "  the  artist  never  dies  ?  " 

As  Edelinck  passed  from  the  scene,  the  family  of 
Drevet  appeared,  especially  the  son,  Pierre  Imbert  Drevet, 
born  in  1697,  developed  a  rare  excellence,  improving 
even  upon,  the  technics  of  his  predecessor,  and  gilding  his 
refined  gold.  The  son  was  born  engraver,  for  at  the  age 
of  thirteen  he  produced  an  engraving  of  exceeding  merit. 
He  manifested  a  singular  skill  in  rendering  different  sub- 
stances, like  Masson,  by  the  effect  of  light,  and  at  the 
same  time  gave  to  flesh  a  softness  and  transparency  which 
remain  unsurpassed.  To  these  he  added  great  richness  in 
picturing  costumes  and  drapery,  especially  in  lace. 

He  was  eminently  a  portrait  engraver,  which  I  must  in- 
sist is  the  highest  form  of  the  art,  as  the  human  face  is 
the  most  important  object  for  its  exercise.  Less  clear  and 
simple  than  Nanteuil,  and  less  severe  than  Edelinck,  he 
gave  to  the  face  individuality  of  character,  and  made  his 
works  conspicuous  in  art.  If  there  was  excess  in  the  ac- 
cessories, it  was  before  the  age  of  Sartor  Resartus,  and  he 
only  followed  the  prevailing  style  in  the  popular  paintings 
of  Hyacinthe  Rigaud.  Art  in  all  its  forms  had  become 
florid,  if  not  meretricious,  and  Drevet  was  a  representa- 
tive of  his  age. 

Among  his  works  are  important  masterpieces.     I  name 


22  THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 

only  Bossuet,  the  famed  eagle  of  Meaux;  Samuel  Ber- 
nard, the  rich  Councillor  of  State  ;  Fenelon,  the  persua- 
sive teacher  and  writer;  Cardinal  Dubois,  the  unprinci- 
pled minister,  and  the  favorite  of  the  Regent  of  France; 
and  Adrienne  Le  Couvreur,  the  beautiful  and  unfortun- 
ate actress,  linked  in  love  with  the  Marshal  Saxe.  The  por- 
trait of  Bossuet  has  every  thing  to  attract  and  charm .  There 
stands  the  powerful  defender  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
master  of  French  style,  and  *most  renowned  pulpit  orator 
of  France,  in  episcopal  robes,  with  abundant  lace,  which  is 
the  perpetual  envy  of  the  fair  who  look  at  this  transcen- 
dent effort.  The  ermine  of  Dubois  is  exquisite,  but  the 
general  effect  of  this  portrait  does  not  compare  with  the 
Bossuet,  next  to  which,  in  fascination,  I  put  the  Adrienne. 
At  her  death  the  actress  could  not  be  buried  in  conse- 
crated ground  ;  but  through  art  she  has  the  perpetual  com- 
panionship of  the  greatest  bishop  of  France. 

With  the  younger  Drevet  closed  the  classical  period  of 
portraits  in  engraving,  as  just  before  had  closed  the 
Augustan  age  of  French  literature.  Louis  XIV.  decreed 
engraving  a  fine  art,  and  established  an  academy  for  its 
cultivation.  Pride  and  ostentation  in  the  king  and  the 
great  aristocracy  created  a  demand  which  the  genius  of  the 
age  supplied.  The  heights  that  had  been  reached  could 
not  be  maintained.  There  were  eminent  engravers  still ; 
but  the  zenith  had  been  passed.  Balechou,  who  belonged 
to  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.,  and  Beauvarlet,  whose  life  was 
protracted  beyond  the  reign  of  terror,  both  produced  por- 
traits of  merit.    The  former  is  noted  for  a  certain  clearness 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


23 


and  brilliancy,  but  with  a  hardness,  as  of  brass  or  marble, 
and  without  entire  accuracy  of  design  ;  the  latter  has  much 
softness  of  manner.  They  were  the  best  artists  of  France 
at  the  time;  but  none  of  their  portraits  are  famous.  To 
these  may  be  added  another  contemporary  artist,  without 
predecessor  or  successor,  Stephen  Ficquet,  unduly  dispar- 
aged in  one  of  the  dictionaries  as  a  reputable  French 
engraver,"  but  undoubtedly  remarkable  for  small  portraits, 
not  unlike  miniatures,  of  exquisite  finish.  Among  these 
the  rarest  and  most  admired  are  La  Fontaine,  Madame  de 
Maintenon,  Rubens  and  Vandyck. 

Two  other  engravers  belong  to  this  intermediate  period, 
though  not  French  in  origin  :  George  F.  Schmidt,  born 
at  Berlin,  17 12,  and  John  George  Wille,  born  in  the  small 
town  of  Konigsberg,  in  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Hesse-Darm- 
stadt, 1717,  but  attracted  to  Paris,  they  became  the 
greatest  engravers  of  the  time.  Their  work  is  French,  and 
they  are  the  natural  development  of  that  classical  school. 

Schmidt  was  the  son  of  a  poor  weaver,  and  lost  six 
precious  years  as  a  soldier  in  the  artillery  at  Berlin.  Owing 
to  the  smallness  of  his  size  he  was  at  length  dismissed, 
when  he  surrendered  to  a  natural  talent  for  engraving. 
Arriving  at  Strasburg,  on  his  way  to  Paris,  he  fell  in  with 
Wille,  a  wandering  gunsmith,  who  joined  him  in  his  jour- 
ney, and  eventually,  in  his  studies.  The  productions  of 
Schmidt  show  ability,  originality,  and  variety,  rather  than 
taste.  His  numerous  portraits  are  excellent,  being  free 
and  life-like,  while  the  accessories  of  embroidery  and 
drapery  are  rendered  with  effect.    As  an  etcher  he  ranks 


24 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING, 


next  after  Rembrandt.  Of  his  portraits  executed  with  the 
graver,  that  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth  of  Russia  is  usually 
called  the  most  important,  perhaps  on  account  of  the  im- 
perial theme,  and  next  those  of  Count  Rassamowsky, 
Count  Esterhazy,  and  De  Mounsey,  which  he  engraved 
while  in  St.  Petersburgh,  where  he  was  called  by  the 
Empress,  founding  there  the  Academy  of  Engraving.  But 
his  real  masterpieces  are  unquestionably  Pierre  Mignard  and 
Latour,  French  painters,  the  latter  represented  laughing. 

Wille  lived  to  old  age,  not  dying  till  1808.  During 
this  long  life  he  was  active  in  the  art  to  which  he  inclined 
naturally.  His  mastership  of  the  graver  was  perfect, 
lending  itself  especially  to  the  representation  of  satin  and 
metal,  although  less  happy  with  flesh.  His  Satin  Gown, 
or  U Instruction  Paternelle^  after  Terburgh,  and  Les  Musi- 
ciens  Ambulans,  after  Dietrich,  are  always  admired. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  in  engraving  is  finer.  His  style  was 
adapted  to  pictures  of  the  Dutch  school,  and  to  portraits 
with  rich  surroundings.  Of  the  latter  the  principal  are 
Comte  de  Saint-Florentin,  Poisson  Marquis  de  Marigny, 
John  de  Boullongne,  and  the  Cardinal  de  Tencin. 

Especially  eminent  was  Wille  as  a  teacher.  Under  his 
influence  the  art  assumed  a  new  life,  so  that  he  became 
father  of  the  modern  school.  His  scholars  spread  every- 
where, and  among  them  are  acknowledged  masters.  He 
was  teacher  of  Bervic,  whose  portrait  of  Louis  XVI.  in  his 
coronation  robes  is  of  a  high  order,  himself  teacher  of  the 
Italian  Toschi,  who,  after  an  eminent  career,  died  as  late 
as  1858;  also  teacher  of  Tardier,  himself  teacher  of  the 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRA  VING.  25 


brilliant  Desnoyers,  whose  portrait  of  the  Emperor  Napo- 
leon in  his  coronation  robes  is  the  fit  complement  to  that  of 
Louis  XVI.;  also  teacher  of  the  German,  J.  G.  von  Miil- 
ler,  himself  father  and  teacher  of  J.  Frederick  von  Miiller, 
engraver  of  the  Sistine  Madonna,  in.  a  plate  whose  great 
fame  is  not  above  its  merit ;  also  teacher  of  the  Italian 
Vangeliti,  himself  teacher  of  the  unsurpassed  Longhi,  in 
whose  school  were  Anderloni  and  Jesi.  Thus  not  only  by 
his  works,  but  by  his  famous  scholars,  did  the  humble 
gunsmith  gain  sway  in  art. 

Among  portraits  by  this  school  deserving  especial  men- 
tion is  that  of  King  Jerome  of  Westphalia,  brother  of  Na- 
poleon, by  the  two  Miillers,  where  the  genius  of  the  art- 
ist is  most  conspicuous,  although  the  subject  contributes 
little.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Palace  of  the  Sun,  described 
by  Ovid,  Materiam  super ahat  opus.  This  work  is  a  beau- 
tiful example  of  skill  in  representation  of  fur  and  lace,  not 
yielding  even  to  Drevet. 

Longhi  was  a  universal  master,  and  his  portraits  are 
only  parts  of  his  work.  That  of  Washington,  which  is 
rare,  is  evidently  founded  on  Stuart's  painting,  but  after 
a  design  of  his  own,  which  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
Swiss  Consul  at  Venice.  The  artist  felicitated  himself  on 
the  hair,  which  is  modelled  after  the  French  masters.* 
The  portraits  of  Michael  Angelo,  and  of  Dandolo,  the 
venerable  Doge  of  Venice,  are  admired  ;  so  also  is  the 
Napoleon,  as  King  of  Italy,  with  the  iron  crown  and 
finest  lace.    But  his  chief  portrait  is  that  of  Eugene 

*Lci  Calcografia^  pp.  165,  418. 


26  THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 

Beaubarnais,  Viceroy  of  Italy,  fuli  length,  remarkable 
for  plume  in  the  cap,  which  is  finished  with  surpassing 
skill. 

Contemporary  with  Longhi  was  another  Italian  engra- 
ver of  widely  extended  fame,  who  was  not  the  product  of 
the  French  school,  RafFaelle  Morghen,  born  at  Florence 
in  1758.     His  works  have  enjoyed  a  popularity  beyond 
those  of  other  masters,  partly  from  the  interest  of  their 
subjects,  and  partly  from  their  soft  and  captivating  style, 
although  they  do  not  possess  the  graceful  power  of  Nan- 
teuil  and  Edelinck,  and  are  without  variety.      He  was 
scholar  and  son-in-law  of  Volpato,  of  Rome  ;  himself 
scholar  of  Wagner,  of  Venice,  whose  homely  .round  faces 
were  not  high  models  in  art.    The  Aurora  of  Guido  and 
the  Last  Supper  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci  stand  high  in  en- 
graving, especially  the  latter,  which  occupied  Morghen 
three  years.     Of  his  two  hundred  and  one  works,  no  less 
than  seventy-three  are  portraits,  among  which  are  the  Ital- 
ian poets  Dante,  Petrarch,  Ariosto,  Tasso,  also  Boccaccio, 
and  a  head  called  RafFaelle,  but  supposed  to  be  that  of 
Bendo  Altoviti,  the  great  painter's  friend,  and  especially 
the  Duke  of  Mencada  on  horseback,  after  Vandyck,  which 
has  received  warm  praise.  But  none  of  his  portraits  is 
calculated  to  give  greater  pleasure  than  that  of  Leonardo 
da  Vinci,  which  may  vie  in  beauty  even  with  the  famous 
Pompone.    Here  is  the  beauty  of  years  and  of  serene  in- 
telligence.    Looking  at  that  tranquil  countenance,  it  is 
easy  to  imagine  the  large  and  various  capacities  which 
made  him  not  only  painter,  but  sculptor,  architect,  musi- 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING.  27 

cian,  poet,  discoverer,  philosopher,  even  predecessor  of 
Galileo  and  Bacon.  Such  a  character  deserves  the  im- 
mortality of  art.  Happily  an  old  Venetian  engraving 
reproduced  in  our  day,*  enables  us  to  see  this  same 
countenance  at  an  earlier  period  of  life,  with  sparkle  in 
the  eye. 

Raffaelle  Morghen  left  no  scholars  who  have  followed 
him  in  portraits  ;  but  his  own  works  , are  still  regarded, 
and  a  monument  in  Santa  Croce,  the  Westminster  Abbey 
of  Florence,  places  him  among  the  mighty  dead  of 
Italy. 

Thus  far  nothing  has  been  said  of  English  engravers. 
Here,  as  in  art  generally,  England  seems  removed  from 
the  rest  of  the  world  ;  Et  penittis  toto  divisos  orbe  Britannos. 
Rut  though  beyond  the  sphere  of  Continental  art,  the 
island  of  Shakespeare  was  not  inhospitable  to  some  of  its 
representatives.  Vandyck,  Rubens,  Sir  Peter  Lely,  and 
Sir  Godfrey  Kneller,  all  Dutch  artists,  painted  the  portraits 
of  Englishmen,  and  engraving  was  first  illustrated  by  for- 
eigners. Jacob  Houbraken,  another  Dutch  artist,  born  in 
1698,   was  employed    to   execute  portraits  for  Birch's 

Heads  of  Illustrious  Persons  of  Great  Britain,"  pub- 
lished at  London  in  1743,  and  in  these  works  may  be  seen 
the  aesthetic  taste  inherited  from  his  father,  author  of  the 
biography  of  Dutch  artists,  and  improved  by  study  of  the 
French  masters.  Although  without  great  force  or  origin- 
ality of  manner,  many  of  these  have  positive  beauty.  I 

*  Les  Arts  au  Moyen  Age  et  d  I'Epoque  de  la  Eenaissance,  par  Paul  Lacroix, 
p.  198. 


28 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRA  VI NG. 


would  name  especially  the  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  and  John 
Dryden. 

Different  in  style  was  Bartolozzi,  the  Italian,  who  made 
his  home  in  England  for  forty  years,  ending  in  1807,  when 
he  removed  to  Lisbon.  The  considerable  genius  which  he 
possessed  was  spoilt  by  haste  in  execution,  superseding 
that  care  which  is  an  essential  condition  of  art.  Hence 
sameness  in  his  work  and  indifference  to  the  picture  he 
copied.  Longhi  speaks  of  him  as  "  most  unfaithful  to 
his  archetypes,"  and,  whatever  the  originals,  being  al- 
ways Bartolozzi."  Among  his  portraits  of  especial  in- 
terest are  several  old  whigs,  as  Mansfield  and  Thurlow ; 
also  the  Death  of  Chatham,  after  the  picture  of  Copley 
in  the  Vernon  Gallery.  But  his  prettiest  piece  undoubt- 
edly is  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  with  her  little  son  James  I., 
after  what  Mrs.  Jameson  calls  the  lovely  picture  of 
Zuccaro  at  Chiswick."  In  the  same  style  are  his  vignettes, 
which  are  of  acknowledged  beauty. 

Meanwhile  a  Scotchman  honorable  in  art  comes  upon 
the  scene, — Sir  Robert  Strange,  born  in  the  distant 
Orkneys  in  1721,  who  abandoned  the  law  for  engravings. 
As  a  youthful  Jacobite  he  joined  the  Pretender  in  1745, 
sharing  the  disaster  of  Culloden,  and  owing  his  safety 
from  pursuers  to  a  young  lady  dressed  in  the  ample 
costume  of  the  period,  whom  he  afterwards  married  in 
gratitude,  and  they  were  both  happy.  He  has  a  style  of 
his  own,  rich,  soft,  and  especially  charming  in  the  tints  of 
flesh,  making  him  a  natural  translator  of  Titian.  His 
most  celebrated  engravings  are  doubtless  the  Venus  and 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING.  29 

the  Danae  after  the  great  Venetian  colorist,  but  the  Cleo- 
patra, though  less  famous,  is  not  inferior  in  merit.  His 
acknowledged  masterpiece  is  the  Madonna  of  St.  Jerome 
called  The  Day,  after  the  picture  by  Correggio,  in  the  gal- 
lery of  Parma,  but  his  portraits  after  Vandyck  are  not  less 
fine,  while  they  are  more  interesting, — as  Charles  First, 
with  a  large  hat,  by  the  side  of  his  horse,  which  the  Mar- 
quis of  Hamilton  is  holding,  and  that  of  the  same 
Monarch  standing  in  his  ermine  robes  ;  also  the  three 
royal  children  with  two  King  Charles  spaniels  at  their  feet, 
also  Henrietta  Maria,  the  Queen  of  Charles.  That  with 
the  ermine  robes  is  supposed  to  have  been  studied  by 
RafFaelle  Morghen,  called  sometimes  an  imitator  of 
Strange.*  To  these  I  would  add  the  rare  autograph  por- 
trait of  the  engraver,  being  a  small  head  after  Greuze, 
which  is  simple  and  beautiful. 

One  other  name  will  close  this  catalogue.  It  is  that  of 
William  Sharp,  who  was  born  at  London  in  1746,  and 
died  there  in  1824.  Though  last  in  order,  this  engraver 
may  claim  kindred  with  the  best.  His  first  essays  were 
the  embellishment  of  pewter  pots,  from  which  he  ascended 
to  the  heights  of  art,  showing  a  power  rarely  equalled. 
Without  any  instance  of  peculiar  beauty,  his  works  are 
constant  in  character  and  expression,  with  every  possible 
excellence  of  execution  ;  face,  form,  drapery — all  are  as 
in  nature.  His  splendid  qualities  appear  in  the  Doctors 
of  the  Church,  which  has  taken  its  place  as  the  first  of 
English  engravings.    It  is  after  the  picture  of  Guido, 

*Longhi,  La  Calcografia,  p.  199. 


30  THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING. 


once  belonging  to  the  Houghton  gallery,  which  in  an  evil 
hour  for  English  taste  was  allowed  to  enrich  the  collection 
of  the  Hermitage  at  St.  Petersburgh  ;  and  I  remember 
well  that  this  engraving  by  Sharp  was  one  of  the  few  orna- 
ments in  the  drawing-room  of  Macaulay  when  I  last  saw 
him,  shortly  before  his  lamented  death.  Next  to  the- 
Doctors  of  the  Church  is  his  Lear  in  the  Storm,  after  the 
picture  by  West,  now  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  and  his 
Sortie  from  Gibraltar,  after  the  picture  by  Trumbull,  also 
ia  the  Boston  Athenaeum.  Thus,  through  at  least  two  of 
his  masterpieces  whose  originals  are  among  us,  is  our 
country  associated  with  this  great  artist. 

It  is  of  portraits  especially  that  I  write,  and  here  Sharp 
is  truly  eminent.  All  that  he  did  was  well  done  ;  but  two 
were  models  ;  that  of  Mr.  Boulton,  a  strong,  well-devel- 
oped country  gentleman,  admirably  executed,  and  of  John 
Hunter,  the  eminent  surgeon,  after  the  painting  by  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds,  in  the  London  College  of  Surgeons, 
unquestionably  the  foremost  portrait  in  English  art,  and 
the  coequal  companion  of  the  great  portraits  in  the  past ; 
but  here  the  engraver  united  his  rare  gifts  with  those  of 
the  painter. 

In  closinor  these  sketches  I  would  have  it  observed  that 
this  is  no  attempt  to  treat  of  engraving  generally,  or  of 
prints  in  their  mass  or  types.  The  present  subject  is 
simply  of  portraits,  and  I  stop  now  just  as  we  arrive  at 
contemporary  examples,  abroad  and  at  home,  with  the  gen- 
tle genius  of  Mandel  beginning  to  ascend  the  sky,  and  our 


THE  BEST  PORTRAITS  IN  ENGRAVING.  31 

own  engravers  appearing  on  the  horizon.  There  is  also  a 
new  and  kindred  art,  infinite  in  value,  where  the  sun  him- 
self becomes  artist,  with  works  which  mark  an  epoch. 

CHARLES  SUMNER. 

Washington,  11th  Dec,  1871. 


/  i  (  ) 


Rare  Engravings  and  Etchings. 

Frederick  KeppeL,  of  London,  and  243  Broadway, 
New  York,  invites  the  attention  of  all  who  are  inter- 
ested in  Engravings  to  his  large  and  fine  collection. 

It  consists  of  early  and  scarce  impressions  from  the 
original  plates  of  the  great  engravers  who  flourished 
in  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 

Prices  moderate.  Correspondence  is-  invited.  En- 
gravings will  be  sent,  on  approval,  to  any  address, 
and  visitors  will  be  at  all  times  welcome  to  call  and 
look  over  the  collection. 


ftmm  ANTFRXNCINE  crSKK  SOT  mmTUTE 
LIBRARY 


STERLING  AND 


^  r-x  ARK  ART  INSTITUTE 
FRANCINE  CLARK  AKi 


UBRARY 


WniiamstONV.i,  Mass?.' 


GETTY  CENTER  LIBRARY 


3  3125  00882  4159 


